Spring casing with integral liner



July 22, 1952 c. s. JAcoBs SPRING CASING WITH INTEGRAL LINERZSHEETS-SHEET 1 Filed Aug. 2, 1950 a. l l

IN VEN TOR.

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July 22, 1952 c. sr JACOBS SPRING CASING WITH INTEGRAL LINER 2Sl-IEETS-Sl-IEET 2 Filed Aug.1 2 1950 Patented July 22, 1952 SPRINGCASING WITH INTEGRAL LINER Clare S. Jacobs, Grosse Pointe Park,vMich.,assignor to F. L. Jacobs Co., Detroit, Mich., a corporation of MichiganApplication August 2, 1950, Serial No. 177,225

4 Claims.

This invention pertains to casings or covers for the leaf springs ofvehicles, and in particular to a one-piece casing of improvedconstruction.

Leaf springs for motor vehicles are usually provided with a pair ofmetal covers or casings, one for each half of the spring. A canvas lineris provided between the spring and the casing for the purpose of`preventing dirt and water from reaching the spring and for preventingescape of the lubricant which is applied to the spring leaves before thecover is mounted. Sometimes the canvas liner is wrapped around thespring before the cover is mounted and sometimes the canvas liner isattached to the'metal cover as a part thereof.

My improved cover, described and claimed herein, eliminates thenecessity for a separate liner, which must be cut to size and wrappedaround the spring or attached to the interior of the cover as a separateoperation. By eliminating the separate liner, considerable expense andassembly time are saved and the entire operation of making the cover isbetter adapted to mass production technique. Y

I propose to provide a cover with the liner as an integral part thereofin the form of ilock adhesively secured to the metal of the cover at theinterior thereof and impregnated with lubricant. Flock, which iscommercially obtainable on the open market, consists of very shortfibres of animal or vegetable origin, and may be secured in any desiredlength. I have found goat hairs of lengths approximately one-quarter ofan inch to bevsatisfactory for the purpose, but other bres, such aswool, nylon and the like, of almost any length, may be used.

In the drawings accompanying this description:

Fig. l is a perspective view of a one-piece spring casing having theliner attached as an integral part of the casing;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal cross-section of the casing shown in Fig. lafter it has been applied to the spring and the spring has been allowedto assume its normal position;

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view on the line 3 3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view on the line 5 5 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged sectional view of the portion of Fig. 2 indicatedby the circle 6;

Fig. 7 is an enlarged sectional view of the portion of Fig. 2 indicatedby the circle l; and

Fig. 8 is an enlarged perspective view of one end of the casing showingthe area of increased liner thickness. Y

A perspective view of my invention is lseen in Fig. 1 wherein is shown aone-piece spring casing 2 made of metal or other bendable sheet materialcapable of being formed which consists in general of a bottom portion4.and sides 6 and 8 and a top cover Ill. It will be noted that the topcover I0, which is positioned adjacent the main leaf II of the spring,is a continuous member, whereas the lower channel-shaped portion,consisting of the bottom and the two sides, is Separated into aplurality of sections by the slotsv I2, I4 and I6 to provide thesectionsv I8, 2D, 22 and 24. The slots I2, I4 and I6 extend around'atleast three sides of the spring,l as can be `seen from an inspection ofFig. 4 which is a section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 2.

All of the sections I8, 20,22 and 24 are connected together, however,along the upper or fourth side of the spring by the longitudinallyextending portions 26 and 3D, as shown in the several gures.

c Connected with longitudinally extending portion 3!) is the cover I0,having the two inwardly turned ilanges 32 and 34 of which ilange 32 isintegral with longitudinally extending portion 30. Flange 32, due to itsangularity, ten-ds to place the cover underlateral tension and servesthe purpose of taking up vslack when the cover is nally locked inposition with the flange 34, Which is set at a complementary angle toengage flange 28, thereafter is locked with flange 28 together, asshown, for example, in Fig. 3.

The transverse slots I2, I4 and I6, which are for the purpose ofpermitting the casing to iiex when it is in position on the spring, areclosed by the slot covers 36, 38 and 40 which may be secured in positionby any suitable means. One convenient method is shown in the variousligures whereby the ends of the slot covers are tucked under a narrowstrip integral With the casing, but raised sufliciently above thesurface to permit the passage of the slot covers thereunder. Thisconstruction can be seen in Figs. l and 4.

After the cover has been brought to the form shown in Fig. 1 by suitableforming operations, the liner 4I is applied. While there are numerousadhesives having rubber-like characteristics that are suitable for thepurpose, I have found that a synthetic viscous rubber-like material soldcommercially under the trade-name Hycar is particularly satisfactory.This material is butadiene-acrylonitrile type copolymer, and isobtainable commercially from Hydrocarbon Chemical Co.

The integral liner is applied as follows:

The bands 36, 38 and 40 are first sprayed with a light coating ofadhesive and the adhesive is allowed to dry. A fairly thick coating ofadhesive is then sprayed over the entire interior surface of the coverincluding the bands 36, 38 and 4D. It is not particularly necessary tocoat the ii interior surface of the top l0 with liner because lubricantusually is not applied to the top of the spring, but this is a matter ofchoice.

It is quite important that the initial coating of adhesive over thebands .be allowed to dry thoroughly before application of the all-overcoat. The adhesive is characteristic in that the second coat will notthen adhere to the initial coat and the complete liner will bridge" thebands as shown in Fig. 6. The function of this feature will be explainedlater on herein.v r-

After the all-over coat of adhesive has become tacky, the flock isapplied by spraying or by other suitable means. Enough flock is appliedto substantially completely cover the adhesive and provide a relativelythick hairy surface over vthe interior surface of the cover. Anadditional coat of adhesive is then applied over the flocked surface ata point near each end of the cover and when this layer of adhesive hasbecome tacky, a layer of flock is applied. This provides a thickenedlayer or .pad at each end of the casing as indicated by numerals 44 and46 which seals the casing against escape of lubricant and entry of waterand dirt.

After the. fiockV layers are completely dry, a coating: of. lubricant,usually heavy grease, is applied theretoy and the cover is mounted onthe spring. For the sake of clearness of disclosure, the lubricantA isnot shown in the drawings. As hereinbefore mentioned, two covers areused in each semi-elliptic spring and these are applied with theassistance of a loading machine and power-operated tools.

The spring is placed in a loading machine and flexed until` the mainleaf I l is substantially straight. The casing is then positioned on thespring, the bottom 4 extending along the staggered ends of the severalleaves. While holding the bottom 4 of the casing against the spring, thesides and 8 of sections I8, 20, 22 and 24 are' pressed toward each otheruntil flange 34 has 'snapped over flange 28, which action takes placeautomatically thereby locking the casing on the spring. The casing isthereafter permanently secured by pressing downwardly on cover I0 normalto the main spring leaf, whereby the flange 32 is folded against coverI0 and against the longitudinally, extending portion 30, and flange 34is securely interlocked with flange 28 as shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. Thecombined action of take-up flange 32 and locking flanges 34 and 28 serveto draw the sides 6 and 8 to a snug position about the spring.

During flexing of the spring in use, the flocked liner 4l slides withrespect to the bands 36, 38 and 40, which were given an initial coatingof adhesive, and thus there is no tendency for the liner to wear throughor tear at these points and cause leakage of lubricant.

It will thus be seen that I have provided a unitary cover or casing forleaf springs with an integral liner which makes the use of canvaswrappings and fabric-liners unnecessary.

While` I have shown and described a `preferred form of my invention, itis to be distinctly understood that the invention is to be limited onlyby the appended claims.

Y I claim:

1. A spring casing comprising a sheet shaped for enclosing at leastthree sides of a laminated leaf spring and transversely slotted atintervals between its ends, independent cover bands for each slot, meansfor retaining each `band in position, andy a liner of ock adhesivelysecured to the interior surfaces of said casing but unsecured to saidbands.

2. The process of applying a flock liner. to a spring casing of the typehaving transverse slots and cover bands for each slot comprisingapplying `adhesive to said bands, app-lying adhesive to the interiorsurfaces of said casing after the adhesive on the bands has dried, andapplying flock to said adhesive.

3. The process set forth in claim 2 with the additional steps ofapplying a second layer of adhesive and a second layer of fiock toportions near the ends of the casing thereby to provide sealing pads.

4. In combination, a laminated leaf spring having a casing thereon, saidcasing comprising a unitary cover having spaced sections movable withrespect to each other covering at least three sides of the spring,members covering the spaces between said sections, and a liner oflocculent material adhesively secured to the interior of said cover andunsecured to the members covering said spaces.

CLARE S. JACOBS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the .file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,765,863 Clapp June 24, 19301,791,252 Tibbetts Feb. 3, 1931 2,128,238 Eisenhauer Aug. 30, 19382,534,113 Egger Dec. 12, 1950

